Detail of Mars, Venus and Mars by Botticelli Postcard

Detail of Mars from Venus and Mars by Sandro Botticelli, 1483, depicts the sleeping god of War. Behind him in the brilliantly coloured forest landscape a group of baby satyrs smile and steal away the god’s weapons of war. Botticelli’s clean, classical approach lends itself well to the clear contours of his flattened tempera painting technique. Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was a Florentine painter of the of the early Italian Renaissance who apprenticed under the master Filippo Lippi. With strong Gothic influences, the mature work of Botticelli reflected a study of antique classical sculpture and was noted for its linear grace and rhythm, flattened relief-like forms with strong contours, and subtle colouring. The complexity of meanings in Botticelli’s compositions, from sources drawn from classical antiquity, mythology and philosophy, enthraled scholars for centuries.